Dreaming In Green
by barrelracer36
Summary: A sequel to the story "Be Careful What You Wish For". Reunited back home, Amanda finds out that she is not left alone too long like she thinks she is. Rated M for future chapters.
1. Teaser

Authors Note: Eeek! Here is the teaser of the sequel to _Be Careful What You Wish For_! =D Hope you like it! Just a warning though, it is going to be hard getting this updated quickly. I just got my first job and have to do that now instead of spending free time on the computer all the time XD But I'm not taking a summer term for college, and I'm only working about 3-5 hours a day at work. So I'll try and write as much as I can! Just stick with me! Trust me; you're going to want to read this! =D Sorry if this teaser is short, but… I tried to get something out as soon as I could! XD

I sighed sitting at my desk again. Ugh. Another day of school; not what I wanted. Yesterday had been hard enough, why did I have to be going again? Each day was just like the previous one. The same crap every day, the same depression of missing Ulquiorra, and the same person snapping my attention back after spacing out. It was starting to get old. Every day was the same old thing each time.

Until today.

I sat there staring at the clock like I usually did, just waiting for the time to pass by faster. The quicker school got out, the more time I had to do what I wanted instead of listen to a teacher complain about our work all day. My writing teacher drove me nuts. She could go on and on about how we weren't supposed to use first person in our paper, even though she wanted us to put our opinions into the paper. Or when she wanted us to write a paper that analyzed an article by someone who had already analyzed something that had been analyzed in the first place. Make sense? No? Good. Because I didn't get it either, but whatever.

I was actually _trying_ to pay attention today. It was either try and pay attention to get a decent grade, or think about my time in Las Noches, get myself upset, and fail the class.

I looked up at the clock once again after she finished talking. We still had over an hour left of class. I sighed. When I brought my eyes away from the clock, that's when I spotted him.

For some reason, my eyes drifted over to the back of the class. And that's where I noticed something. We had a new student in class. When did he get here? I didn't even notice him walk in when class started. Well… maybe that's because I was too busy thinking about other things. I didn't really notice much often these days; probably not a good thing. I took my eyes away from the new guy, but sent them right back when something clicked in my mind. I glanced back over at him, only to have my eyes leave straight away when he realized I was looking over at him. I stared at my desk. My mind scrambled to think of the answer. He looked so familiar. Like I had always known him. Very slowly, I tried to make it look like I was leaning back to look at my friend, but instead I peered over at the boy once again. He looked so much like… like Ulquiorra! It was almost as if it really was Ulquiorra sitting there, only as a human. I sighed and relaxed in my seat, knowing that it wasn't really him. There was no way that would happen no matter how hard I wished it could be.

Throughout class, my mind came in and out of focus. I would pay attention for a short amount of time, only to be distracted by that boy again. What was with me? It wasn't truly Ulquiorra, only someone who reminded me of him. No matter how hard I tried to get myself to realize that, it wouldn't work. My brain wanted to make my biggest wish come true. The boy never said a single word during the whole class, and he got up to turn something in to the teacher, he made his way by me and passed my seat rather closely. The only reason why I made note of that was because he didn't have to pass by me. His desk was closer to the teacher's desk than mine. Mine was clear across the room. But instead of getting up and walking to the front, he came down the row and glanced at me while he passed.

I looked down at my desk. No. No I couldn't be thinking about this. I was only going to be more distracted and lose concentration if I didn't stop thinking about this. He was just a boy who looked like him, nothing more. I had to get over it.

When class was over, I gathered up my stuff in my arms and started to make my way out of the class. Before exiting the door though, I looked behind me to get one last look at that boy. But when I turned to look, he was gone. I blinked my eyes in surprise. Where did he go? He hadn't left before me, had he? No. I was sure of that. I continued to stare into the room like I had just seen a ghost disappear when my friend Lindsey called to me.

"Hey, Amanda!" She yelled from across the hall. "Come here. I have a question for you!"

I turned my attention over to her and saw her wave at me to come quickly. I looked back in the classroom, almost as if I knew he would somehow be back in there, but sighed when I saw that he wasn't. Then I shook the thought away and made my way over to Lindsey. I put on a smile, trying to get my mind straight.

"What is it?" I asked her, sitting down at a table with her and placing my stuff on the ground next to me.

"Well, I have this art project that I am supposed to be working on, but I can't figure out what to do. I've never been one for creating really cool pieces, so I thought I'd ask you for advice." She smiled at me and took out a piece of paper with some instructions on it. I took it in my hand.

"Hmm," I looked over the paper. "It says that the piece must be from a favorite show of yours, but you must also include a favorite hobby?" I made a strange face. "That's a weird thing to do. How do those two even match?"

She and I laughed. "Exactly my point." She took the paper back. "I was so confused when I read it. So that's why I thought I'd ask you instead. You seem to know more about art projects than I do… seeing as you're the artsy one of the group."

"I know I'm the best, right?" I joked. "Well, let's see. What is your-" I stopped mid-sentence when I saw someone behind her sitting at the next table. It was _him_. The boy from class. I stared at him, trying to get a better look at him. My mind kept telling me I knew who he was, but I honestly didn't. I had never seen him before. He was completely new to me. He sat at the table writing something down on a piece of paper, working silently. I looked him over as he worked. His posture was so precise. He had black hair, almost in the same exact style like Ulquiorra. And his skin. His skin was very pale; just like Ulquiorra's. There was no way. Just… no way that could be him. I mean-

"Amanda?"

I jumped at hearing my name called. "Y-yes?" I looked back at Lindsey.

She gave a sly grin toward me and glanced behind her at the boy, then back at me. "Got yer eye on someone there, don't ya?" She giggled.

I smiled quickly, and tried to play along. "Oh yeah, totally." I gave a small laugh, but didn't continue it too long. Lindsey brought my attention back to the paper sooner than I could take another breath. She had asked me again of what I thought she should do her project on, but my mind went blank. I couldn't think of anything. Not with what was going on inside my head. I had to tell her that I'd get back to her about it when I thought of something. Other than that, she would have to do it on her own.

I apologized for not helping much and that I had to get going, and she agreed to let me go. Even she saw that I was distracted by something other than that boy behind her. So without any question, she let me go.

Before leaving, I went to look at the table next to her again where that boy was sit-

He's gone!

I quickly looked around me, trying to see if I could catch a glimpse of him walking away or something. But it was no use. All classes were getting out and the halls were beginning to fill up with a herd of people. I sighed in frustration as began to make my way out of the building. I would have to wait until tomorrow to look for him. But why? Why was I even going to look for him? Why did I care so much about this? Why couldn't I just let it be and continue my life? My brain wouldn't let me stop thinking about him one bit. It was like my brain was trying to tell me something. Something that wasn't true. There was no way that boy could be Ulquiorra. No way at all…

Or was there?

Authors Note: Okay, I decided to stop it there because I could have gone on and on with it… and I didn't want to because that would have spoiled more for chapter one =D Anyways, it's not the best teaser ever, but hey… it's something. I was just so excited to get something out to my readers! Please comment!


	2. Authors Note

Authors Note –

I hate having to do this, but I have no other choice. I'm sure you all are really wanting to read more of this story, and trust me, I can't wait to have you read it… therefore I am SO sorry I haven't updated this story. I have had quite the summer here, and it has taken a lot of time away from me for writing. After the first month or so of not being able to write, I sort of got out of the writing mood. Lately, I have been wanting to write a little bit here and there, and I have some more written down, and I may be back in the writing mood. But college is starting in the next month, and I have more classes this term. Not only do I have school to concentrate on, but I also have my job (even though its only 2 days a week). I will try my BEST to get this story going again, but please stick with me on this.

Thank you all very much for the reviews on my last story, it really means a lot! ^_^

~Amanda


	3. Chapter 1

Authors Note: Eeek! Here is chapter one of the sequel! =D Hope you like it! It probably won't really get going until chapter 2 or so… but hey, that's how stories work XD And I find it kinda funny how I just gave you all that authors note about how I haven't updated any all… and yet BAM. Not long after that, I actually finish chapter one! Haha So I'm sure you've all read my "important authors note"… if you haven't, go read it now… so I hope you all understand that updating this story might take some time. But I will try my best to write and give you guys more chapters as soon as I can! So just stick with me on this, and trust me… you'll enjoy this story more than the last!

Oh! One more thing! That teaser you read… you can kind of ignore it a bit. Well, not completely, but mostly. During writing this chapter, I changed some ideas of mine that I had put in the teaser. So you will not find the entire teaser in this chapter. Lol but that's totally ok, the teaser was just to get you guys started! XD

I can't believe it. Has it really been that long already? It feels like I just left Las Noches the other day, but in reality, it has been over five months. I was finally able to figure out when it was that I had disappeared while talking with Ashley. She and I talked about random things that I had missed while being away over spring break. Spring break… I had been gone during April then; five months ago. So much time had passed and it all rushed by so quickly. My 19th birthday passed in July, summer break came and went, and college was starting back up again; all without a single moment of seeing Ulquiorra or the others. There was nothing left of them that I had except for this necklace which Ulquiorra had given me. I never took it off; not once. It was the only comforting thing I had that kept me sane when I would cry in the late hours of the night, just thinking about him. I missed him so much. Part of me was gone now that we were no longer together. The saying _"you never really know how much you love something until its gone"_ stuck in my head. How true that statement really was. I knew I loved him, and having to leave him just about ripped me apart. My heart ached and it knew something was missing. I never felt happy enough like I used to before I met them. I never imagined that this would have such a strong impact on my life. My school work had not been the best lately because I would be caught spacing off when I should have been paying attention and writing notes. My friends noticed something was wrong the moment summer began, but they never really asked for the full story. Probably because I would say I didn't want to talk about it, not only because it would make me upset even more, but because I physically _couldn't_ talk about it.

I sighed and rested my head on my hand while I looked up at the clock. This day had been taking forever to get started, and it was now taking forever to end. I woke up this morning to my alarm clock that had been set two hours early, and after that, there was no way I'd fall back asleep. Once I was up, I was up. I had to find stuff to keep me busy all morning, but there wasn't much to do. It wasn't like I could go out and ride the horses before school; I'd get too dirty and have to take a shower, therefore being late to class. I ended up just occupying myself on the computer and uploaded pictures to my deviantart account. Once it had been time to go to school, I picked up my stuff, and headed out the door. But now I was just stuck in this classroom, not doing a single thing.

I was in writing class, and not much was going on. We had already turned in our paper that we had started last week, and now the teacher was just going over picky things on everybody's paper. Apparently she thought this paper had been extremely easy to write, and wasn't happy that basically the whole class only got a C on it. But come on, does analyzing an article that has been analyzed by someone who analyzed it in the first place really sound fun? Or did that even make sense? No? Okay good. Same here.

I continued to stare at the clock, just watching its arms move ever so slowly in a circle. I wished I could just break it open and turn the arms by myself to make time go by faster, but then I'd just get in trouble. So instead, I just sat there, painfully waiting for time to pass. I let my mind start to wonder, like I usually did. My memories of my days in Las Noches were clear as day. Each moment I spent there was embedded into my mind so deeply I would never forget a single thing. I would defiantly never forget my time spent with Ulquiorra… Ulquiorra. I sighed again as the thought of him entered my mind. I swore I could feel tears starting to swell up in my eyes, but I didn't let that happen. Not here. Not in class. But I still couldn't shake the thought of him. His eyes. His skin. His touch. His voice. His… kiss. I could still remember each feeling and sensation like it was happening right now, but sadly it wasn't.

I don't know how long it had been that I was spacing off, yet again, but my friend Kassie suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and snapped my attention back to the present.

She looked at me blankly but with a hint of a smile. "Are… you okay, Amanda?" She gave a slightly unsure laugh. She was worried about me. Her and I would usually talk or write notes to each other during class when it was at boring moments like this, but now these days would just be spent listening to the teacher and not talking. Well, Kassie was at least listening to the teacher.

"W-what?" I muttered, a little off guard since I wasn't paying attention to anything until now. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Kassie held a paper in front of my face. "This is your paper." It was totally blank and hadn't been touched. Then she held another paper up in front of my face, one that had many words written down on it and other tiny marks. "This is my paper." She set the two papers down in front of me on the table side by side and then looked at me with a smile. "What problem do you see with this picture?"

I smiled and gave a tiny laugh. "Oh. I see your point." I shifted in my seat and grabbed a pencil from my bag. Setting my paper in front of me, I turned and looked at Kassie. I didn't have to say a single word though. She knew exactly what I was going to ask. Quietly, she moved her paper closer to mine and let it sit there so I could copy down what notes I needed to have. I hated how this happened all the time, but thank God I had her to help me. She kept me on track most of the time.

I finished copying down the notes and gave Kassie back her paper. Thankfully the teacher wasn't paying much attention to our section of the room, so I was able to copy the notes safely. I slipped my newly written on page into my binder and started getting things together. At least I could get things ready to go when the time came. Now all I had to do was sit there and wait. Ugh; just what I didn't want to do… wait.

Although it seemed like it took centuries for class to be over with, it all finally came to an end and I was set free. Since I had already put everything away, I quickly got up from my seat and was ready to leave. But before I was able to leave though, Kassie caught my arm and pulled me back around.

"What's the rush girl?" She laughed as she let my arm go and picked up her purse, placing it over her shoulder. "It's not like there is a fire here or anything. Just chill out will you?" she smiled at me and I smiled back. She was right. I didn't need to rush out of there, even though I did want to.

"Sorry, I was just so happy that class was out and I was free." I started to walk with her out the door and into the crowded hallway.

"Yeah," she replied. "That class did seem extra long today. I'm glad we're out. Now we can go hang till our next class."

Every time this class got out, the halls would fill up with tons of people that you couldn't even see where you were going half the time. I was amazed that you could fit so many people all in one place at the same time. It was kind of dangerous though. One time Kassie had almost tripped over something, probably her own foot, and fell. Luckily I had caught her in time before she was to fall to her death. And I'm only half kidding about that. I swear, if you were to fall down in the hall with this many people around, it would be like falling into an endless pit of trampling feet from hell. Both of us tried to stay to the edges of the crowd, but every-so-often we would get sucked into the mob of people and were lost forever. That was, until we got to the end of the hall and were able to finally breathe and escape our prison of college animals.

"Come on Kassie," I grabbed onto her hand and started pulling her, helping her stick with me. "I can see the light at the end!" I was making a joke obviously. We had been pulled into the ocean of people and were almost at the end. "We're al-most… there…!" I shoved and pushed as much as I could, and she did the same. Eventually, we were able to jump out into the wide open space of the lobby. The two of us sighed.

I turned around and faced her while we laughed. "I think that was the worst yet!" I took a deep breath.

"I totally agree!" She said, looking back at the hall and shook her head. "They need to do something about that. There is either going to be a death, or at least someone gone missing one of these days." She laughed again and turned her attention back to me.

"Should we start making fliers so we can just put someone's picture up on it when they do go missing?" I joked, holding up a pretend piece of paper. "Because by the looks of it that could be anytime soon. Hell we could have been the ones on the flier!" I made a sarcastic worried face and laughed. It was true though. Someone seriously was going to be reported as missing and I would probably be that person with my luck.

Kassie and I laughed a bit more about the whole idea and then went to find a table. But as I went to turn around, and being the klutz that I could be, I completely ran into this guy head on; dropping my books and causing papers to fly everywhere.

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed as I instantly kneeled down to pick up my things. "I'm so sorry! I can't believe I didn't look before I-" There was no way I was able to finish that sentence. My heart stopped. My body froze. My mind went blank of every thought; every thought except this one.

The guy I ran into had kneeled down as well to help pick up my stuff. But that's not what made me stop. It's what the boy looked like that made my heart skip a beat. As I lifted my head to look at him, I blinked and just looked at him. Those eyes, that hair, that skin… He looked exactly like… like…. like Ulquiorra! He had the most beautiful emerald green eyes like him. His hair was black as night and his skin was a very pale color. Maybe not as extreme as the Quarto's, but that didn't matter. This boy looked exactly like him in every way. It was almost as if… as if I was looking at Ulquiorra himself. But there was no way that was possible. He was back in Las Noches, where I wasn't and wouldn't be. I just couldn't help but think of him when looking at this boy. Not only did he look like him, but his expression was very little and calm. The look he gave me sent chills down my spine though. It was almost as if he was trying to tell me something without using words; like he wanted me to know something important, but he couldn't speak of it.

"It's okay."

He spoke. His voice. It sounded so close to his too. I swear to God this was his humanized clone.

Noticing that I was kind of staring at him now, I shook my head and brought a slight smile to my face. "I-I'm still sorry." I gave a tiny laugh, trying to lose my other thoughts. "I really do need to watch where I'm going." I looked at him with a soft smile and waited to see what he would say, but he didn't say anything more. All he did was look back at the ground and continued to help pick up my papers.

Once everything was clean up, he gave my papers back to me and gave a slight nod of his head and was on his way. I was left just standing there, wondering what the hell just happened. That boy seemed exactly like him, but there was no way possible that could be him. But no matter what, he wouldn't leave my mind. I watched as he walked away and disappeared behind a corner. That's when Kassie came up behind me and slapped her arm right around my neck, causing me to just about jump out of my skin.

"Well, well, well." She stated, a sly smirk plastered across her face. "I see Amanda here has her eye one someone, eh?" She giggled and looked at me, her smile as wide as it could be.

I rolled my eyes and removed her arm from me. "Oh whatever." I laughed, trying to pretend nothing had really happened. "Like you don't have your eye one anyone here, missy." I smirked at her. I knew all too well that she had her eyes on probably more than a thousand guys already, but she would just keep that to herself.

"That's for me to know, and for you to never find out." She stuck up her nose with a smile, and walked away toward a table.

I just stood there watching her, shaking my head. "You're such a nut." I joked, making my way over to the table, taking a seat, and placing my stuff in front of me on the table. I took out my books and a few papers and then set them to the side and paused. I did not want to work on homework right now. How could I possibly think straight after what had just happened? I knew it wasn't really him, but still! The dude looked exactly like him so of course my mind was going to flip out over every bit of this. I shook my head, trying to get rid of that thought, and grabbed a pencil.

"So." Kassie grabbed my attention. "What homework do you have in math? I can help you with it if you would like." She smiled sweetly at me, taking out a few papers and pencils as well.

"Oh, thank you. I don't really know what kind of homework I have. All I really know is that I don't like it." I laughed. I hated math so much. It was the worst thing ever. Sure it was useful and all, but come on. My major was Graphic Design. Do you really see a lot of math involved in that? I don't think so. I would go up to my friends and say 'What is pie', and of course they would all start to say '3.14'. But before they could finish, I would interrupt and say "WHO CARES! You're never going to use it!" which was probably true in most cases.

I pulled out my math papers and set them in front of me so Kassie could take a look at them. While she glanced over them, seeing what she was going to be up against with teaching me, my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I didn't even have to look at the ID to know who it was though. I smiled to myself, took out my phone, and answered it.

"Yes, Ashley?" I looked at Kassie and smiled back at her. She motioned to me to go ahead and talk. She could begin helping me with homework afterwards anyways. We didn't start out next class for another hour.

"AMANDA!" She practically screamed into the phone. "Can you come over?" I could tell she was either really extremely happy about something, or she just really, really, really wanted me to come over right that second.

I laughed for a moment. "Well, seeing as I'm at school right now, and have my next class soon, I can't quite go anywhere now can I." There was a pause on the other side of the phone, followed by the exact response I was expecting. I laughed.

"Oh. I forgot." She laughed too. "Dangit! I have something I want to show you!"

I relaxed into the back of my chair. "Well," I paused, spinning it around a tad. I loved these chairs that spun. It was so entertaining at times. Especially if you're really bored. "I could always try and come over after I get home from-"

All my words were lost suddenly when my chair turned around. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't do anything but sit there and stare across the room at them. Every sound around me was muted and all focus was on those people. There were three of them, and one of them was the same guy I had run into not long ago. But that wasn't why I was in shock. It was the others he sat with. My friends and I would joke about guys at the school who could look like some of the bleach characters if they dressed up like them, and these guys here… they were the ones. I swore to God that I was dreaming. Not only did one of them have hair exactly styled like Grimmjow's, but was quite the same color as well. The way he sat in his chair, the way he looked, that smirk on his face when he looked around the room; it said 'Grimmjow' all over it. The guy next to him was very tall. Which in my head, Nnoitra was the only person that could ever match up with that. I sat there, still as a tree, just looking at them. The one who looked like Grimmjow, glanced over at me, and I swear he gave a quick smile at me. But not only that, he returned his attention back to his friends and spoke to the black haired boy I had run into, who then proceeded to glance my way to. He and I looked at each other for a moment. Even though I probably had a complete shocked, or blank for all I know, look on my face, I could not look away. The black hair boy gave a slight nod of his head as if to say hello. I couldn't respond. My body and mind wouldn't let me. But I had to try. I had to try and say hello back to-

"Earth to Amanda!" I suddenly heard that screaming into my head over the phone, which instantly snapped my attention back to what I was doing. "Are you even still there?"

"O-oh. Y-y-yeah. I'm still here…" I stuttered, trying to draw my attention away from those guys. I gave one quick look back at them, and then fully turned my seat around to face away from them. "Hey," I spoke again before Ashley had a chance to say anything more. "Do you think I could come over now?" Kassie looked over at me when she heard that. I held up a finger at her, telling her to wait on saying anything.

"Oh, um… I thought you had another class though?" Ashley said confused.

"Yeah, I can just skip that one. It's just my computer lab anyways. They don't even require you to go. So can I come right now?" I said that all at once I was sure it sounded all blurred together, but Ashley completely agreed to have me come over then instead of going to my class.

I hung up the phone and started gathering my books, papers, and whatever crap I had laying out on the table. When I had everything I needed, I started to get up from my seat, but then stopped because of Kassie. She was just sitting there, my math homework still in her hand, and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What's got you all flustered all of a sudden?" She giggled a little bit, handing my paper to me. I grabbed it and shoved it into my bag along with all the others. It was probably lost forever in my bag now though. I could never find anything in that thing once I put it away. I was amazed I was able to get it out in the first place.

"Oh um…" Great, how was I going to explain this to her? I couldn't just say because of those guys, she would think I'm nuts. And I couldn't just say because I just want to, she knew I still had my computer class that I loved to go to. I had never missed a single day for that class. "I guess I just really don't feel like going to computer lab today." I shrugged. "Plus, its not like missing one day of that class is going to hurt me." I smiled. It was true. Missing a few days in that class was no problem for me since I already knew everything in the class. The only reason why I was taking it, was because apparently I needed to prove that I could pass the class for my Graphic Design major. Whatever.

"What about your math homework though? Don't you need help?" She sat back in her chair, crossing her arms.

"Nah." I waved my hand in the air and laughed. "I'll just figure this one out on my own."

She sighed and gave a slight laugh. "Good luck with that one girl."

I smiled back at her and soon said goodbye, grabbing my keys out of my purse. I was fully expecting to see those guys at the table again when I turned to leave, but instead I was faced with an empty table. There was no one in sight. I stood there for a moment, thinking. Maybe I was seeing things. Maybe none of that really happened? No. It couldn't have happened. No one here at my school, let alone my world, could possibly look that much like them. My brain was just thinking too hard about them that it was making me see things. That was it. That had to be it.

Again, I tried to shake the thought away from my mind and took off out of the building to head to my car. I was going to Ashley's now, and maybe that would help relax my mind for today.

As I started to drive, my mind started to go back to those thoughts of the guys, but I couldn't think about that right now. Not while I was driving, I could kill myself. So to distract myself, I turned on the radio and turned up the volume so all thoughts were shoved out of my head while a song came on. That seemed to work for a little while, and before I knew it, I was arriving at Ashley's. I don't think I had completely turned the key before Ashley was at my door, waiting for me to get out of the car.

I smiled at her. "Ashley…" she just looked at me. "You need to move so I can actually open the door."

She stepped to the side and just smiled as I got out. "So what made you want to skip your next class?" She asked me as we started to walk toward the house door.

I looked down at the ground as I followed her, not really wanting to say the truth about why I was skipping my class and coming here. "Well," I started. "I guess I just had enough of school today, and didn't feel like going." I looked up at her and shrugged as we walked through the door into the house. "Plus, I like being here instead of school anyways. Who wouldn't?"

"Well duh." She said, taking a seat on the couch. "Who wouldn't want to hang with me? I mean, come on!" She leaned her head on the back of the couch, looking up at me as I stood behind her. I just laughed and came around the couch and took at seat next to her.

It wasn't too long after I got there that we had started talking about different things. I had asked her about that 'thing' she wanted to show me when she and I were talking on the phone, but she couldn't remember what it was that she wanted to show me; which didn't come to my surprise. She was the one who would text me saying 'Amanda! I have something important to tell you!' and then completely forget what it was when I would call her. I kept telling her to just text me the answer if it was so important, but she never did. That's Ashley for you. But hey, I would do the same thing sometimes.

Although coming to Ashley's place did take my mind away from today, no sooner than had we just started talking, did she change the subject to Bleach. And at that point, all cause was lost. There was no way my mind wouldn't go back to think about today. As I sat there, pretending to listen to her, thoughts of those guys would flash in and out of my memory. Each time an image crossed my mind, it seemed as if I was trying to be told something. Every time I saw one of the guys, I would focus on the small things that I had missed from today. Like their expressions, what they were doing, how they were looking at me. I was in too much shock at school when I saw them, but each flashing image in my head kept pushing me and pushing me to look more into it. But I couldn't figure out why. Who were these people? Why was I so determine to find out? Was it because they looked similar to the espada? Or was it because maybe if I found friends who looked like them I could pretend they were? No matter what the reason was, as hard as I tried not to think about them, there was no use; especially when Ashley started bringing up topics about Ulquiorra or Grimmjow.

"Amanda…?"

I sat there looking at Ashley. Well, in her case I was staring at her. I was spacing out again and again during our conversation. And I hadn't even spoken yet. "Y-yeah?" I tried to speak calmly, without stuttering, but it didn't work.

She looked at me strangely. "Are you okay?" She paused, looking concerned. "You don't seem like you're all here right now. You keep spacing off." She smiled and sighed. I just looked at her and smiled back.

I sighed, shifting my position on the couch. "Yeah, sorry about that." I paused. "I guess I just have a lot on my mind with school starting again and all. It's been a long day too."

"Then maybe you should head home for the day." She shrugged. "You look kind of tired as well. Go home and take a nap or something." She got up from the couch and started to walk away, expecting me to follow her, and I did.

I got up, grabbed my purse from the chair, and made my way out the door. Before leaving though, I turned and spoke to her. "Maybe if I'm not so out of it tomorrow after school, we can hang out then. Sound good?" I smiled, seeing her fully agree to that.

"Yes! You bet!" She gave me two thumbs up.

I laughed and shook my head. "Okay then. See you later then." I waved to her as I spoke, walking to my truck and starting it up.

"See ya!" Ashley said back, just before shutting the door to go back inside.

It wasn't long before I was back at my own house, and I was glad. I didn't feel like driving much more today. Ashley and I didn't live too far from each other, and that was nice. If I really didn't want to drive, I could just walk a few miles, and that could be good exercise at the same time. As I walked into my house, I noticed something. Both cars in the garage were gone.

"Yes!" I said to myself as I shut the door, walked to the couch, and plopped myself down on it. "No parents for tonight." I have completely forgotten that they were both out over night for something. My mom had gone to yet another dog show a few towns away, and was staying the night there with a friend. My dad on the other hand was out of town because he was working. Every week he would be gone two to three nights a week, so whenever my mom was gone one of those days as well, I got the whole house to myself overnight. I loved it so much!

I lay there on the couch for a while, just about ready to fall asleep, but that's when I remembered I still had homework sitting in my bag. "Ugh! Dammit." I moaned as I slithered off the couch, grabbed my bag from the table, and drug it over to me. I opened it and took out what looked like shredded pieces of paper, but what really just crumpled up homework. Thank God this homework wasn't graded on looks.

Before starting any homework of mine, I went into my bedroom and picked up my laptop. I never did anything until I had checked my email, deviantART account, facebook, and God who knows what else. Once it loaded, and finally got connected to the internet after the tenth try, I clicked on my email and let it load. I normally got 15 or so junk mail, so it took some time before it was ready to go. Meanwhile, I turned on some music and waited.

The little "new mail" sound came on, and I started to delete my junk mail. It usually went by really quick because I never got emails from anyone in the first place. If I ever did get an email, I would recognize the name of the sender immediately and wouldn't delete it. Other than that, I knew what to delete just by the name of it. So there I started.

Click.

Click.

Click, click, click, click, click, cli-

I suddenly stopped when my eyes saw something unusual in my email.

"What the…"

All the junk mail I got always had a name of where it was sent from under the "name" section. It didn't matter if it had a topic name or not though, because I didn't need to know that. This email on the other hand had no topic title, or a sender name. The sender name just came up as "email" and the topic title just said "no subject". I was about to delete it right off the bat, but something was holding me back. So I clicked on it and opened it up. When I did, I was only more confused than before. There was only one word in the message. It said "Tomorrow" and that was it. I sat there for a moment trying to think where this could have come from. Did I send something to my own email by my phone to remind me of something? No. My phone number would have come up as the sender name. Did one of my friends send me something? How did this get through?

"Ugh! I give up." I moved my mouse over the delete button, and there went the message. I could care less about a little message that had one word in it. 'Tomorrow'. What did that even mean anyways? Whoever sends a message just saying 'tomorrow' has no idea what 'other information' is. You can't just send that and expect me to know what the hell you're talking about.

Seeing that this email was apparently more important to my brain than my actual homework, I shut my laptop and set it aside. It was time I actually did something good and got my homework done. I took out my math homework, stared at it, and then set it down. "Maybe I should have stayed and gotten help from Kassie." I sighed and looked at the paper. Oh well. I had to try it now. I picked up my pencil, and so it began.

Before I knew it, time had greatly passed and I was starting to feel tired. And no wonder I was losing concentration on my homework. I looked at the clock and it was already 12AM. Wow. I must have been working hard on my math. I looked down at it and sighed. I hadn't even gotten half the page done. I smiled to myself and laughed. I really hated math.

I soon put all my homework back into my bag, which meant I shoved it back into my bag, and got up from my spot. As much as I wanted to just mess around online and talk to people, I knew I needed sleep. I still had school tomorrow, and tomorrow was my early day. So after brushing my teeth, getting into my PJ's, and scooting the dogs out of my room, I jumped onto my bed and pulled the covers over me. I then reached out and turned out the lights, retracting my hand back under the covers. While I placed my hand back under the sheets, I rub my arm up against my necklace, causing it to slip off my shoulder and down onto my hand. I looked at it and realized, not only did it feel warm, but it was way bright than ever before. Like someone had just cracked a green glow stick and put it inside my necklace. As much as I wondered why it was doing that, I just ignored it. My brain was done over-thinking things today and needed to rest. I could just take another look at it tomorrow anyways. I shut my eyes and listened to my cat purring next to me quietly. No sooner than I had closed my eyes, did I fall sleep, exhausted from thinking today. Who knew so much thinking could make you so tired. But tomorrow would just bring more and more thoughts, so I might as well get as much rest now as I could.

As I suspected, during the night my dreams went back to what happened at school. Not only could I not forget about those guys during the day, but even at night they were in my dreams. My dream would flash glimpses of each of them, and I tried to stop it. But it was no use. I couldn't just wake myself up and stop the dream. The boy I ran into came into my dream first. It started with his face, and when he went to help pick up my papers, and then went to that look he gave me. When our eyes met, he looked as if he was trying to tell me something without words. Suddenly in my dream, that email I had gotten quickly flashed into my mind right before going back to the boy. _"Tomorrow"_ the message said. Then I went back to dreaming of the boy. Next my dream went to the other guys at the table, and what their expressions were. They were all smiling like they knew something I didn't, but I couldn't ask what it was. I didn't know who they were. Then again, the message from the email flashed into my head again. _"Tomorrow"_ it said, right before going back to the same dream with those guys. It continued to do this throughout the whole dream, but it suddenly ended and changed to a completely different dream. I was now dreaming of everyone back in Las Noches, having fun and hanging out. I was talking to my favorite boys again, feeling completely happy being with them. Oh how much I really missed being there. I was sitting in the game room with them, watching Grimmjow and Nnoitra battle it out in yet another game of pool, each of them trying to impress me by how good they were. Which they weren't doing a good job. Right then, that message flashed back yet again. _"Tomorrow"_. What the hell was up with this stupid message? It wouldn't leave me alone, not even in my dream. Hell it was in my dream more than it was when I was awake. The dream went back to the boys again, and I was sitting on the couch with Ulquiorra by my side. I turned and smiled at him, and he gave a slight smile back. It made me feel so good when he smiled at me, because he rarely smiled ever in general. He shifted a bit in his spot, and started to reach out a hand to me. He placed it on my shoulder and looked me in the eye, very seriously, before saying, "Amanda, it's time to wake up."

I suddenly shot up in my bed, staring at the wall, and breathing hard. I looked around the room for a moment, trying to find out what was going on, but when I realized I was just in my room, I was only more confused. I slowly turned my head to look at my shoulder. My shoulder… It felt like someone had actually physically touched me just then; like honestly really touched me as if I had been awake to see them. But there was no one in the room; no one but my cat and I. What was going on? In the past I had had a dream before like this, where someone touched my arm, but it had never been this vivid before. This time was different. This time it truly felt like someone had touched me, and I could still feel the sensation of someone's hand being there. I shivered as I sat there trying to think this all out, but only getting more and more confused by the moment.

It wasn't long before I noticed it was light in my room. I looked at my window and saw the sunlight starting to peek through my blinds. I sighed and stretched. "I might as well get up now. There's not use trying to sleep anymore after all that." I spoke to my cat, Panda, who had been woken up by my suddenly movement. She came up to me and purred, rubbing up against my hand while I scratched her. I got up from my bed, grabbed some fresh clothes from my closet, and headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day. As I walked into the bathroom, I felt strange. Not just because of the dream though. I just felt like today was going to be… different. And I didn't know just how different it truly was going to be.

Authors Note: SQWEEE! A chapter had been completed! *party*! Lol Anyways, I know there may still be some mistakes, but I kinda rushed the editing because I was so excited that I finally got this done! Again, I'm SO sorry for the long wait. And I hate to say it, but it might be like that for a while since college is starting up again soon and I have harder classes this term . Pray that I get time to write! =D


	4. Chapter 2

Authors Note: Gah! Now that term has started, expect me to be a little late… well very late… on the updating. College is only going to get harder and harder as I get farther into it DX not fun! Haha But there is some good news that relates to my story! Next term (starts in January) I will be taking a creative writing class that will allow me to actually work on my story! More like FROCE me to work on it! XD How so? You can write virtually anything in the class, as long as you have at least two new pages each class day! So that means I can write my story and pass the class at the same time! AND, although we only need two pages, I know that I'll get back into the writing mood (I hope) and will come out with more chapters faster! Let's hope for the best! ^_^ OH! And one more thing… yes I know the girl in this chapter is named Kassie and not Ashley. This is just a different girl in the story in case you get confused XD Well enough rambling! Let's get to the chapter!

I sat there in bed, petting my cat Panda as she purred, not wanting to get up. This was too early for me. I'm the type of person who stays up till 2-3 AM and sleeps in till 12-1 PM, but that's life. After stretching a bit more, I finally was able to force myself up out of bed and drag myself into the bathroom where I began to brush my hair and teeth. It wasn't long before I noticed something wasn't right with what I saw in the mirror. I looked at myself in the mirror, trying to figure out what it was that wasn't right. Quickly, I spotted the problem when I looked around my neck.

"My necklace!" I gasped, dropping whatever was in my hand, and rushed back into my room to search for the necklace. First I threw off my covers on my bed, sending them flying through the air and onto the ground, and looked at my bed. Nothing; there was no necklace there. Next I dropped down to the ground on my hands and knees and looked under the bed, my dresser, and even in my shoes. Still there was nothing to be found. Since I wasn't having any luck in my room, I went back into the bathroom thinking maybe it was somewhere in there, but there wasn't a single thing to be found. "Shit! Where the hell is it!" This was going to drive me nuts. I couldn't lose this necklace! It was from Ulquiorra, and that was all I had left of him.

I walked back into my bedroom again and picked up my cover that I had tossed from my bed, and began to put it back into place. I swear I was going to start crying from losing this necklace, but I never got the chance to even think about crying. When I got closer to my pillow with the bed cover, I stopped and froze. Sitting on my pillow, was a piece of paper that was folded into a note. I couldn't move at first when I saw it. Where the hell did it come from? I had _just_ woken up, and I know for a fact that nothing was there when I got up. This had just gotten here within the time I had been getting ready. Slowly, I reached out my arm to pick up the note. Once it was in my hands, I held it up closer to me and paused. I looked around the room, trying to see if there were any clues as to where this came from, but I could see nothing. All that met my eyes was my messy room. When I opened the folder paper and read what was inside, I only became even more confused. Inside the paper it wrote: "See you later".

Before I even had time to think about any of this, my phone rang. I jumped and dropped the paper when the loud sound of my ringtone started playing; it scared the hell out of me. I looked at the clock and it read 8:30AM. Who was calling me at this hour? School didn't even start till 10:30AM anyways. I picked up my phone and looked at caller ID and smiled. It was only Kassie.

"Hey there girl!" I answered the phone, trying to sound like everything was alright as I started to pick up that note.

"Good morning sleepy head!" She laughed. She knew that mornings were not my favorite. "Why are you up this early? You usually sleep till an hour before class starts? Is something wrong?" She gave a slight laugh and waited for my answer.

Was something wrong? Let's think about that for a second. First, I wake up with a feeling like someone was touching my shoulder. Then I find out my necklace is missing when I never took it off in the first place. And finally, I find a note on my pillow that says "see you later" from apparently some ghost, when I had only been out of that room for less than three minutes! Yeah, I would say something was wrong, but I couldn't tell her that. Knowing her, she would probably just call the police and have this turn out to be a much bigger deal that it needed to be. So instead, I just replied with, "Oh, no. Everything is okay." I smiled weakly, taking a seat on my bed while I looked at the note once again. "My cat jumped on my face and woke me up. So now I'm awake and bored." I lied to her. I had to.

She laughed at the fact my cat woke me up that way. "You're cat apparently knew that I was going to call you early today!"

I set down the note on my nightstand. "Yeah, why _are_ you calling me this morning?" She normally didn't call at all because she knew I was still sleeping.

"I was wondering if you wanted to get to school early this morning with me. I have some homework that I still need to finish up, and I know you probably have some too." She laughed, knowing all too well that she was correct. "I thought we could go together and keep each other company before class started."

I sat there for a moment and thought about it. _Go to school early? Or stay at home where I'm apparently losing my mind and getting notes on my bed that come out of nowhere?_ "Yeah I think I'll take you up on that offer!" I smiled and got up from my bed, walking back into the bathroom yet again. "When will you get here?"

"Umm," she paused. "I'll be there in about thirty minutes. Is that good?"

"It's perfect." I giggled. "It doesn't take me long to get ready anyways. I'll be waiting for ya!"

"Okay great! I'll see ya soon then!"

We both said goodbye, and I hung up the phone.

I completely forgot about the note and went back to my normal morning routine. Although today's morning was going a lot slower than usual now that I couldn't find my necklace, and that note had shown up. Not only that, but the dream I had last night was starting to creep its way back into my head now. I could remember the feeling of Ulquiorra's hand on my shoulder, and could defiantly still remember that same feeling when I woke up. It was a really creepy sensation. It even felt like someone had been in the house watching me before they touched me. That was what scared me the most, because no one but me was home. I had to stop thinking about this though. My mind was starting to think too much of it, and I knew my brain would just start making things up soon. I wouldn't be able to tell what is real from not real.

Time went by faster than I had expected, because before I knew it, Kassie was at my house and ready to go. I ran into my room, grabbed my stuff, and took off out the door; locking it behind me.

"Hey sister!" Kassie said to me as I hopped into the car with her. "Ah. Isn't this a nice _early_ morning?" She made sure to emphasize on the 'early' part.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Oh, yeah. It's great! Just makes me want to go out and run a marathon!" I joked with her.

After Kassie made a few more jokes about me not being the best morning person, she proceeded to back out of my driveway and then head off to school. Since I wasn't really awake because it was so early, holding a conversation wasn't really going to work, so instead we cranked up the radio and listened to our favorite songs. Song after song, we sang each one from start to end. I swore we had a lyrics list written inside our brains for all of these songs. No matter what came on, we knew it and we knew it well.

Although it looked like I was relaxed and having fun singing along to the songs, I was in fact very tense and uptight about what today would bring. In the back of my head, the remembrance of not only the note I had found this morning, but the email I had gotten, the dream, and even those guys from yesterday were still in my mind. None of it would leave me alone long enough to concentrate on anything else. I felt physically tired from thinking so hard about it all the time and I don't think my brain can handle much more.

As Kassie and I continued singing out hearts out to every song that came on the radio, I began to think. Should I tell her about what is going on; tell her about my dream that I had, and explain how a mysterious note appeared out of nowhere in my room this morning? If I maybe told someone about all of this, maybe I would be able to get some of this off my chest and feel less strained. I couldn't say anything though. Right as I was about to speak up, something inside me screamed not to say a word. But not telling her was probably a good thing anyways. With any of my luck, she would freak out, think I have a stalker who broke into my house, and call the cops. So yeah… maybe keeping this a secret, at least as of right now, wouldn't be such a bad idea. I mean, it's only been two days. Maybe things would calm down by the end of the week.

Since college was just downtown from where I lived, it didn't take us too long until we arrived and had to look for a parking lot.

Kassie groaned as we circled the parking lot for the 5th time, digging her nails into the leather of her steering wheel. "You know, putting a college right in the middle of downtown was the worst thing ever. Parking is ridiculous!"

"I totally agree!" And boy did I. I don't know how many times I had almost been late to class just because of the stupid parking situations. It was horrible. No matter what time of the day, it was like a party was going on and everyone in the world was invited. It would end up coming to you having to wait around and drive an extra 20 minutes to search for a spot, only to find out that the open spot you thought you found, is a handicap spot. "They should at least have given the college students their own parking garage. Or two parking garage's at that."

"They should have! OR!" Kassie, paused as she looked both ways before crossing the street and into the next parking lot. "We should have a parking pass that allows us to park all day in a two hour spot." She looked at me and I nodded my head. That had been one of my ideas from the beginning. If we were allowed that, things would go so much better.

After what seemed like hours of searching the sea of parking spots, we finally came across an empty cove and were able to dock. The car came to a spot, the music turned off, and each of us began shuffling our things together before getting out.

"Hey, Amanda." Kassie began as she started putting on some of her makeup, looking in the rear-view mirror as she talked. One of my books had fallen out of my bag, so I went to reach down for it, still listening to her. "After class did you want to go with me to-"

Something outside across the street caught my eye for a split second right then, and everything in my head went silent. I could no longer hear a word Kassie was saying, and at that point, I didn't care quite frankly. When my eyes focused on what I was looking at, my heart stopped. I couldn't believe my eyes at first. I saw that same group of guys I had seen at the table the other day, and they were walking toward the college. The dream that I had that night rushed into my head, as well as the note and email. And just as soon as those thoughts had entered, they left, leaving me confused as ever.

"HEY! Earth to Amandaaaaa!"

I suddenly snapped out of it and turned to face Kassie. "What? Oh, I'm sorry." I looked away from her and back at the guys across the street. That's when something came into my mind. "Hey, can I ask you something?" I looked at her again, very seriously at that.

At first she looked confused, but then smiled and rolled her eyes and sighed. "I guess so. But only if I get to finish my question afterwards."

"Yeah, yeah. Okay deal." I somewhat rushed those words out as I wanted to get to my question before the guys were out of sight. I pointed across the street and asked her, "Do you see those guys over there?" I glanced over to her to see her reaction. She looked at me like I was some crazy person who needed mental help, which probably wouldn't have been a bad idea with how I was acting lately.

She sighed and laughed as she noticed who I was talking about. "Yeah, I do." She paused for a second before letting a sly grin appear on her face. "I see your _boyfriend_ there too."

She giggled as I gave a slight laugh and punched her in the arm. Obviously she was making a joke of when I ran into the guy yesterday. "He is not my boyfriend." I retorted.

"Yet!" She giggled again, going back to finishing up her makeup, and then replacing the items in her bag.

I rolled my eyes and smiled to myself, letting that smile drift away when I watched the group of guys walk away behind the corner. Well, at least I knew they weren't just my imagination.

The both of us were soon out of the car and on our way to our classes, and off for a very interesting day of school.

"Okay," Kassie spoke up and looked at me with a smile. "Now it's my turn to finish my question that apparently you have no interest in." We both laughed. I always seemed to space out about something when she asked me a question. "Did you want to go with me after class to start looking at Halloween costumes? It's coming up here pretty soon, and we might want to get our costumes now before it's too late."

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed, completely forgetting that it was October. "Yeah! That would be great. I totally forgot that was coming up soon." I smiled at her as we turned a corner. Her and I were both looking for costumes a week ago, but couldn't find anything at the places we had been too. So we were going to keep searching until we found something sweet and sexy, but definitely not slutty, as most costumes for girls tend to be now these days.

As we made our way closer and closer to the doors, my mind couldn't help but think that what if those guys were just on the other side of that door? What if that boy was there and what if he asked me something or wanted to talk? What was I going to say? Yeah he was cute, but that was only because he greatly reminded me of Ulquiorra, and I was definitely shy to speak to him because of just that. With my mind thinking about Ulquiorra instead of some random guy who looks like him, I was sure to say something that would make me look like an idiot. And that wouldn't really be the best "first" impression.

Kassie could recognize the look on my face as she walked by my side. She knew all too well what I was thinking about, and couldn't help herself but comment on it. "Hey, want me to get his number for you? I can check if he is single." She giggled like a little school girl with her plan. She knew I would never allow her to do such a thing.

"Hell no!" I laughed out loud. "No way in hell am I letting you do that."

"Oh come on!" She stomped her foot. "Why not? I don't see _you_ doing that anytime soon, so why not have a person with experience of asking guys for numbers do it for you?" She smiled.

I smiled back. "Oh thanks. That's a great confidence booster there, Kassie." I laughed and she did too. "No, I'll do that on my own time." I paused, while she opened the door and we walked inside. "If I don't die from nerves first."

Unlike the parking lot, there were plenty of tables to pick from down the hall from our class. We were about two hours early anyways. It was almost like every time the parking lot was full, the school wasn't, yet whenever the parking lot was completely empty, the school would be loaded with students. Some things in this world just never made sense, but hey, when did they ever?

Kassie took one seat and I took the other, both of us setting our stuff down and digging through to find our homework. Immediately, Kassie started her work and seemed to be on a roll of moving from one assignment to the next. Me, on the other hand, I wasn't quite going anywhere at all. Want to know why? You guessed it. My brain had had enough of everything that it was now just blank. I couldn't think about anything, let alone homework that I had no interest for in the first place. I stared at my paper, almost trying to make words appear on it by magic. No that would have been awesome. But sadly, nothing was happening. All that was happening was my homework staying blank, my mind trying to figure out everything about this note and all, and none of it made sense. No matter how hard I tried not to think about this anymore, it just wouldn't leave. But hey, if you got an email from a no named person saying "tomorrow" and a note on your bed saying "see you later" when you're the only one home, you might understand what I'm saying.

But it wasn't too long after we had sat down before someone approached us from afar. At first I didn't even notice anyone was standing by our table until they spoke up. "Excuse me, miss?" And as soon as I looked up, my whole body went numb and froze. No, it wasn't that "Ulquiorra" boy, but one of the others. The one with blue hair. The one who reminded me of Grimmjow. His hair, his look… that smirk. Everything about him said "Grimmjow" all over it, and I couldn't let that pass through my mind. But I had to let it pass. I couldn't act like it was really him. After all, he was only a person at my school who just happened to look exactly like him in every way possible. Nothing to worry about there, right? Right… I hope.

"Y-yes…?" I managed to speak with all my might. It was a miracle that any words were spoken at all with how frozen my body felt. I watched him carefully as he slowly began to lift up his right arm, as if to hold something up to show me. And that was exactly what he did.

"Is this yours by chance?"

My eyes widen. "Oh my God! My necklace!"

My necklace. He was holding my necklace! But… but how!

"I have been looking for that all morning!" I exclaimed, completely forgetting all thoughts of who he reminded me of and now replacing those thoughts with the return of my necklace. I thought I had lost it forever and would never see it again. I reach my hands out toward it as he leans in to hand it over to me. "Where did you find-" I couldn't finish my sentence. As he handed it over, the skin of his hand gently brushed up against mine and something stirred inside me. That touch. I know that skin. A sudden quick flashback to the time Grimmjow tried to molest me raced into my head, but quickly left in an instant. What the hell was that all about? Why did such a simple little thing trigger that?

Quickly realizing I was starting to space out, I shook my head and put on a smile, finishing my question I had started. "Where did you find this?" I looked at my necklace, so happy to have it back in my possession, before looking back up at the guy for an answer.

He gave a slight glance down the hallway that Kassie and I had just come from a few moments ago. "I found it laying in the hallway over there."

Instantly I was confused by that. I never heard anything fall, and certainly I would have heard something like this hit the ground. Plus, I don't remember taking it off last night anyways. This didn't make any sense, but that seemed to be the theme lately. "Hmm," I started. "I guess it must have fallen out of my bag while walking." I tried to give a smile of thanks, but it wasn't a very good one. My brain was so confused at this point, I swore that if anything else happened today my brain would explode.

"Well, see ya later." He stated as he began to leave, giving a slight wave of the hand before turning the corner and disappearing as fast as he had appeared at our table.

I sat there for a second. _"See you later"?_ I thought. _That's the same thing the note said… what the…?_

"Wow, Amanda."

I turned my attention toward Kassie, staring at her blankly. "What?"

She laughed and shook her head as she folded her arms across her chest and smiled. "A guy _THAT_ hot comes up and talks to you, and all you do is freak out about some necklace!" she laughed again. "You really need to take lessons on getting a guys number."

I laugh back at that comment. It was true. "Oh shut up!" I crumpled up my still blank piece of paper and threw it at her face, playfully. I then picked up my newly returned necklace, smiled at it, and placed it around my neck. Having this necklace back gave me some sort of comfort after having everything happen this morning. I felt more complete.

For the next hour and a half, everything was going normally. I was actually able to concentrate on my homework, and Kassie even helped me with some of it as well. My mind didn't once go back to thinking about those guys or that note or anything at all. It was nice to just be able to do my homework for once without spacing out. Before we knew it, class was about to start, so we both picked up our stuff and headed off to our first class of the day; writing.

The two of us quickly found our seats and got settled down as we waited for the teacher to arrive. She always seemed to come at the last minute before class actually started. So everyone in the meantime just chatted with their fellow classmates. I sat back and listened for awhile to all the different conversations that were going on. Some girl in the back was rambling on about how her boyfriend was totally flirting with this other girl and she was so upset about it. Another girl in the row in front of her was trying to explain to the guy next to her that she was not interested in him and he apparently couldn't see that, and then there were two guys at the front obviously discussing which girls in the class were the cutest and who they might go after. Kassie and I on the other hand, sat there in out seats giggling about all the different things going on. It was more fun to just listen to everyone else instead of having our own chat session.

Like usual, the teacher came pacing into the classroom just at the clock struck 10:30AM.

"Whew. Parking today is a doosie." She sighed and went to put her stuff at her desk.

Yeah. She always blamed it on parking. But she had a teachers parking permit for a saved spot so parking was defiantly not the reason for being late all the time.

After the teacher set things in place, she walked over and began to shut the door. "Okay class, let's get started. Now, do you all remember from last class how-" she went off about some things from the day before and the whole class mumbled yes and no about things we really didn't care about for. About the only people in this class who actually enjoyed being here, was probably Kassie and myself… and that's about it. Everyone else seemed to hate it or just not care. As long as they passed with a "C", they called it good.

It had only been a couple minutes since class had officially started, when the door cracked open again. A student, who was apparently a little late to class, was sneaking into the room as quiet as possible. So quietly, that I didn't even look to see who it was. If they were late, that was their problem and I didn't care. I didn't care until I found out who it was thanks to Kassie.

"Hey, Amanda." She whispered as she leaned over my way a bit. "Your boyfriend is here." She giggled.

Instantly, my eyes widened and I shot my glance over to the person now shutting the door. Oh my God. She was right. It was that boy! The one that looked exactly like Ulquiorra. But why! He hadn't been in this class before? Why was he here now? Maybe he had just transferred into the class? Great. Now how was I supposed to pay attention in class.

I looked over at Kassie and basically said "what the hell am I supposed to do" just by the way I looked at her. She continued to giggle away instead of trying to figure out a way to help me. And of course, with all of my luck in the world, the only open seat in the whole entire class… was right smack dab next to me. Yes, me. It was like someone had planned this entire thing out just to make me nervous as hell.

As the boy made his way over to the only seat available, I sat there pretending that I really didn't notice him coming my way. Maybe, with any luck, I wouldn't really have to talk to him and I could just get through class with no problem. Yeah. Like that would happen. But without even realizing it, just by natural reaction, when the boy finally sat down I slowly glanced over at him. He instantly noticed me looking, and I gave him a sweet and shy smile, almost like I was embarrassed he sat there. When he saw me smile, he gave a tiny smile back. At first I didn't think anything of it, but that's when I saw something. That little smile, that _tiny_ little smile… not only did he _look_ like Ulquiorra in the first place, but that smile was almost exactly the same as his as well! I had been the only one to get Ulquiorra to smile, and I would always remember that tiny little pull at his lips no matter what. It was unique and his alone and this boy… he that same exact smile. Why did everything about this boy have to remind me of the one I love? It wasn't helping with my school work and-

"Amanda, what did I just say."

Shit.

The teacher.

I snapped out of my, yet once again, spacing out moment and turned my attention to the teacher. I gave her a smile that said "oops" all over it, but she didn't seem to be in a good mood this morning for mistakes.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Longhurst."

The teacher gave large sigh, quite a bit more dramatic that it should have been, and turned her back to the class as she went to write something on the board; of course not before saying one last thing to me. "Maybe you should pay more attention to class instead of your boyfriend."

My heart sank, just as I did deep down into my seat, blushing bright red. She could have said anything else, but no. She had to say boyfriend. Why! Yeah, it might have been obvious that I kinda liked the guy, but still. The whole class was giggling here and there, but Kassie was just about busting her gut laughing because she knew the little situation I had with this guy. I turned to her and punched her in the arm playfully. She quieted down, but I could still hear that little chuckle coming from her.

As much as I didn't want to look over at the person next to me, since things were even more awkward now, I did it anyways. I was just too curious to see his reaction. Slowly, I glanced over his way to find him facing forward, but his eyes were on mine. I can tell he is trying so hard not to laugh about this whole thing. The second we made eye contact, the two of us let out a sighing laugh. It's just too funny not to laugh about it.

Things soon calmed down in class, and the teacher had begun writing more crap on the board that we didn't really understand. And this was a writing class. How hard could that possibly be? I mean seriously. Write a few words here and there, and bam. There ya go. But noooooo. We have to have certain words in certain places and some words mean different things when put in different places and blah blah blah blah blah. Just give me the assignment already and I'll be on my happy way.

Just when I thought nothing else could get any more awkward, the teacher spoke up about our next topic.

"Okay, class. Today we're going to do something a little different." She began. "First, I want all of you to partner up with someone. But,"

Great. There was a "but". That can't be good.

"But, it has to be someone you don't know. Alright, get to it." She then went back to getting some paper and whatnot while the whole class started pairing up with each other.

Oh perfect.

As soon as that was said, I could hear Kassie giggling about it as she went off to go find someone to work with. Of course she picked one of the guys at the front of the class, apparently thinking one of them was cute. Me on the other hand, I knew exactly who I was going to end up being paired with, since we didn't know each other.

I shyly turned to the boy and practically forced myself to say, "Wanna be partners?" I smiled, waiting for his answer. For a few seconds he just smiled at me with no answer. He just sat there. Smiling almost as if… as if he knew something I wasn't aware of. But soon he nodded his head and agreed to work together. This would somewhat difficult if he was going to be this quiet all the time. The only time I had been able to hear him speak, was when I ran into him yesterday. And that had only been two words!

When everyone had found their partners, the teacher started giving us instructions as to what we were doing. Since it was still the first couple of weeks of the term, not everyone knew each other in the class, so today we were basically being forced to meet someone we didn't know. We were supposed to talk to this new person, and write down notes about what we learned so we wouldn't just forget about the whole thing the next day. But not only that, she then wanted us to plan a time to actually hang out with this person at least once during the next week to really get to know them. Just perfect. As if things weren't awkward enough already.

With this new information given, everyone starts their job, chatting away and seeming to get along really well. As for me and this boy, things were going a little slow with how shy each other seemed to be acting. Since I was the one who seemed to talk a bit more than him, he decided maybe I should go first. I'll I got to hear him say was, "Ladies first." He gave another slight smirk when I jokingly rolled my eyes. So without anymore hesitation, I start talking. First telling him my name, and what area I'm from. Then I start to explain how I'm really into horses and have grown up with them my whole life, and how I became a barrel racing and love every second of it. Before I could explain anymore though, I noticed something and commented on it.

"Aren't you supposed to be taking notes or something?" I laughed a little, trying to lessen the tension.

Finally, I got to hear him speak a bit more than just a few words.

He gave a quick sighing laugh before explaining. "That's because I won't forget anything."

I look at him for a moment, totally not believing him and waiting for him to say "just kidding" and take out a piece of paper. Nothing. He continued to sit there with a tiny smile, apparently telling the truth. I laughed and just went with it. I would test him next time he came to class and see how much he remembered.

After explaining a few more things, the teacher says to switch roles and have the other person speak. Yes! I can actually get to hear him talk for more than just a few seconds. Well, that's what I thought anyways. When it realized it's his turn to speak, it's almost like he starts to shut down. He looks around a bit, trying to buy time to think of what to say.

I try to make him feel a bit more comfortable. "Anything at all is good." I say sweetly, waiting for his response. After a short pause, he takes a deep breath and shifts in his seat. "Um, my name is," he pauses for a second, making me wonder what could be so hard about telling me his name. "My name is Chase."

A name. Finally.

Now maybe I could convince myself that this was no way in hell Ulquiorra. This boy had a name, and that was my proof. Well, I guess that was good enough.

I write his name down in my little book and wait for more. Just as he starts to open his mouth again, something out of the blue happens. And with all of my luck, something like this would happen just at this moment. The damn fire alarm in the school goes off and everything is put on hold. Very quickly, the teacher gathers everyone up and begins to have us evacuate the room. I see the boy taking in a deep sigh of relaxation, apparently happy with not having to explain any farther. But why? Why would such a simple thing be such an ordeal?

Either way, we had no choice but to quit talking and head outside. And no longer than we had gotten out of the door, Kassie was right by my side asking me questions.

"Sooooo." She giggled as she came up to me, looking back at the boy who was standing toward the back of the group. "How the "date" going?"

"Date?" I laughed out loud. "As if! You're such a dork." I sighed and looked at the ground. "He is a little quiet, but then again so am I half the time. So yeah, I'll give him time before really trying to talk to him."

"Well, don't you have to hang out with him sometime this week?"

I shut my eyes. I had forgotten about that. "Oh yeah," I sighed. "I guess I kinda forgot about that. Well, I'll just wait and see what happens."

For the rest of the time we were outside, Kassie bombarded me with questions about this boy. She wanted to know his name, where he lived, what he liked, and what I liked about him. She was quite disappointed when I told her I only got to know his name. That's when she smacked me on the head for not going over to him and talking to him right now during this little "break". But before I had the chance to even think about going over to him, we noticed people were starting to head back inside the building, so we followed and went back to class.

Everyone took their seats and instantly started blabbering away at how odd that was to have a fire alarm go off and how they wish stuff like that happened more often. Whatever. So as soon as I was back in my seat, I was about to turn in my seat to continue talking to this boy- er, I mean Chase.

"Well class," Mrs. Longhurst spoke up, quieting the class quickly. She looked up at the lock an gave a shocked expression as she realized how much time the fire alarm had taken away from class time. "It looks like we'll have to save out get to know each other time for tomorrow. We don't have enough time to continue that, so instead, I'll hand out your next assignment."

The second the class heard the word "assignment", a whole bunch of groans and moans sounded off as multiple people complained about it. Hey, this was a writing class, how hard could it be? Although the last writing class I took had some stupid paper that no one understood, so maybe asking how hard this one could be wasn't the best thing.

Class soon came to an end, and students shoved their assignment papers into their bags and rushed out the door, glad to be free; at least until they had their next class. I started to gather up my stuff, gently placing my assignment into my binder unlike the others. Just before standing up, I glance over to my side where Chase had been sitting, and found his seat empty. He was already up and walking to the door. Before exiting though, he turned around slightly and I could hear him practically whisper "See you later" as he disappeared into the flooded hallway. I barely got to reply back to him before he was gone, but not because he left so fast. It was because of what he said… "see you later". That's what got me. First that note, then the blue haired guy, and now him. Each said the exact same thing. I didn't understand it one bit.

Kassie and I both parted our ways to get to different classes, and I headed upstairs for mine. Math. My least favorite subject, so I didn't really make it my main priority to get there as quickly as possible. I was never late, but didn't rush to get there first. But once I get there, I slither in and take my seat next to a couple girls I had made friends with.

"Hey, Sariah." I smiled to her.

"Hey girl!" She said perkily. No matter what, she always seemed to be so happy. "How has your day been so far?" she asked me, starting to pull out some homework pages.

Oh if she only knew. "Oh, my morning has been just splendid." Although she could hear the sarcasm in my tone, she understood the loon on my face that said "don't ask". So she didn't. Instead she and I both just laughed it off.

"Just one of those mornings?" she pondered.

I sighed and shrugged as I got settled and took out my own homework pages. "I guess you could say that." I smiled again, closing my binder. "What about you? Anything epic happen for you?"

Maybe I shouldn't have asked that. As soon as I had, she went off into this big conversation about how she broke up with her boyfriend, but then got back together with him the next day. That soon lead to how he then broke up with her because he heard her say something about not wanting to be with him and do he got upset and left. Only then that lead to her finding a new boyfriend the next day and now they are as happy as can be. I swear, she could go on and on about her boyfriends and how everything became to be. I just listened to her though and let her blab on and on, giving her my full attention. That was… until they walked in.

I couldn't believe it at first, but had to deal with the truth. Two new people walked into the classroom, and the second they did, everyone looked at them and instantly started mumbling to each other about how they looked. The new guys were no other than the blue haired guy and the really tall one. With no doubt, the tall one reminded me most of Nnoitra. He had to be the same height, amazing as it was. And boy did each of them resemble each Espada. Right down to those childish smirks they held on their faces, almost as if they were planning some prank to pull on someone.

And with all of my luck in the world, the two of them take two open seats that were right behind Sariah and me. Just perfect. Was I being stalked today by these guys or something? None of them had been in my classes before, and suddenly every class I had so far had at least one of them. Maybe they were some group of friends that were new here? That had to be it. But still… the chances of that one group each having the same classes as me? Something didn't seem right.

A few moments after the two guys sat down, Sariah noticed the expression on my face and laughed a little. She could tell I was annoyed at something, so she asked, "Uh, do you not like them or something?" She waited for my answer.

I took note that I was expressing my feelings publicly just then, and switched my annoyed face into a silly smile. "Oh, they look a little bit like these guys that I used to know, who annoyed me. So I guess I just-" I couldn't explain any farther. The teacher walked in and started class up right away. He was late after all.

Class started out pretty normally, the same as every day. We started with our warm up practice, and then moved onto the homework we had been working on, discussed that, and then went onto other matters of math. During the whole class, I usually paid attention because I sucked at math. I wanted to make sure I got every bit of information I could or else I would fail the class; again. Yes, again. That's how bad I sucked at math. But this year felt like it was the right year for passing. That is, if I could pay attention today. No sooner than the teacher had started speaking, the two new guys behind my friend and I started whispering stupid things. Probably making crude jokes about something no doubt. And they didn't stop. Over a half hour went by, and I could still hear the constant snickering and laughing. With all my might, I tried to listen in on their conversation, but since the teacher was explaining whatever he wrote on the board, I couldn't hear a thing. So I tried to pretend I never heard anything from them. At least that's what I tried to do until I heard one of them say one thing.

My name.

Followed by the crude comment of, "Wouldn't you like to tap that?", which came flying out of one of their mouths.

That's it.

I whipped around in my seat so fast that it caused the rest of the class to now pay all their sweet attention onto me. But I didn't care. I continued to focus on comment that had just been said. I sternly looked them both in the eye and snapped at them. "Hey, dipshit." The smirk on their faces faded away, my sudden move catching them off guard. "Shut it, or I'll shit it for you!"

A slight pause passes before both of those smirks come racing back to their faces. The taller guy leaned back in his seat, folding his arms behind his head as he commented back.

"Ooooo. A little moody this morning are we?" He exchanged glances with his buddy next to him, both chuckling to themselves.

I grit my teeth together, trying extremely hard not to jump up out of my seat and smack him across the face. But I knew better than that. There was no way I was going to get kicked out of college for starting a fight. Instead, I had to turn back around and try to ignore the continuing snickers behind me; louder than ever. But not after having a rather embarrassing lecture in front of the class about my "attitude".

Thankfully, math class was only an hour long. If I had had to spend a minute longer in that class with those two in there, I swear to God I would have strangled them and then myself. The second the teacher allowed us to leave, I practically jumped out of my seat and flew out the door. Sariah just laughed at the whole situation. She knew I would end up talking to her about it next class time anyways.

Quickly, I ran downstairs and leave the building to meet up with Kassie at her car. She always waited for me there after I had class, because she got out earlier than I did. Maybe if I got to her car quick enough, I would be able to get home without anymore confrontation with that group of guys. Especially the two in my math class. They annoyed me the exact same way Grimmjow and Nnoitra did back in Las Noches. I swear it was like their human twins were haunting me here where I lived. Just what I needed. It wasn't like I thought about them all the time, missing all the time I spent with them, and playing games with them, and… Ulquiorra. How I missed spending time with him. And now I had these guys to remind me even more of them. Who I would never see again. Not quite what I wanted. It made me feel even worse honestly.

It didn't take me long before I arrived in the parking lot and hopped into Kassie's car, faster than she even had time to realize I was there in the first place.

She gave me a strange look as she took her place in the driver's seat and smiled. "Wow. What's up with you?" She laughed, but seemed a little worried.

As to not get her too overly worried, I just sighed and smiled. "Oh, it's nothing really. Just a couple of guys who were annoying in class today." I gave her another quick reassuring smile so she wouldn't go any further in this discussion. I really didn't want to explain the whole entire story to her right here and now.

She got the message thankfully. Without asking any further into it, she started her car and immediately started another topic. But this one wasn't any better. She started asking me questions about my "date" in writing class today with that boy. She wanted to know every single little detail, right down to when him and I were going to hang out; which never actually was planned out thanks to that fire alarm. I joke around with her about the guy, but try to avoid going into a deep conversation about it. I wanted to pay more attention to us going to the Halloween store we were heading to now.

A couple hours had gone by while we were costume shopping. Of course I never found anything that I liked because no matter what I looked at, it was like everything was meant to be a slut for Halloween. So I decided I would try again tomorrow at a different store.

Kassie dropped me off at my house, and I waved to her as she drove off back to her house, and I went inside. That's when I wished I hadn't of done so. The moment I set foot into that house, I instantly felt like someone else was there. That feeling you get when someone is standing in the same room as you, and you can feel their presence. Yeah, that's what I felt. At first, I thought it was my parents, so I went around the house saying "hello?", but never once did I get a response. Now knowing that I am indeed the only one in the house, besides the dogs, I try to shake the feeling off and start on some very in need homework.

Doing homework seemed to calm me down strangely, and before long, I forgot about everything that had happened today when I turned on some music and got to work. For once, I was actually able to concentrate on my school work. The next time I looked at the clock, two hours had already gone by. Two whole hours, and everything was going smoothly. Everything seemed to be back normal.

But just as I thought that, it drastically changed.

Suddenly, I turn off my music when I swear to God I heard a voice come from down the hallway. I sat there for a moment, waiting to see if I heard it again. Nothing. But that didn't convince me. I really thought I heard someone. Very slowly, I got up from my seat on the couch, and peak my head around the corner to look down the hall. Nothing. Just a couple of dog toys on the floor.

A shiver slithers down my spine, but I go back to the couch and sit back down, a little bit weary before turning my music back on. I turned it on softer this time so I could hear better around me. That feeling of someone in the room with me was stronger now, and it was starting to get a little creepier.

A few minutes go by, and nothing happens. I relax a bit and try to get back into the mood of doing homework. That didn't last long at all though. I suddenly heard one of the squeakers from a dog toy sound off throughout the hallway. But this time, I didn't turn around. Why? Because I actually heard a voice. A voice so familiar to my ears, I could recognize if from a mile away. Slowly, I begin to turn in my spot, watching the scene that unfolded before my eyes.

"_No way."_ I thought.

I _had_ to be dreaming.

Authors Note: YAY! Extra long chapter because 1) I had too much to write, and 2) I love you all so much that I felt so bad for not uploading in forever! DAMN YOU COLLEGE SCHOOL WORK! But alas, I have just a few weeks left and I shall hopefully be posting more! That is… until next term starts in January LOL Hope to see your comments! The next chapter is when things REALLY start getting good! Sorry for any spelling errors and all that jazz… I kinda did a quick "edit" because I wanted to post this for you all ASAP. So yes I know there are some mistakes hehehe


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